BARB WIRE FENCES. 223 



I have never thought it advisable to use barbed wire in any 

 field where I turn out horses. I have never cared to do it, be- 

 cause I take a great many horses to board, and if I turn them 

 out at all, I want to turn them out where thoy will receive 

 no harm. Therefore, I have never used any ])arl)cd wire 

 where I expected to turn out horses, without putting a light 

 rail upon it. The fence of which Mr. Hillman speaks 

 has a very light board upon it, hardly three-quarters of aa 

 inch broad. I have used the field to turn out calves at twenty- 

 four hours old, with their dams, to exercise. I have never seen 

 a calf receive a scratch from it. The first piece I put up was 

 ai'ound a field where I keep my young dairy stock. My 

 dairy cows pass it every day, and I have never known my cat- 

 tle to receive a scratch from it in the three or four years I 

 have used it. I tried the ribbon wire, thinking it would 

 make a fence which horses would see without the top rail. 

 I put up quite a long strip, without any barbs on it. It is 

 very true that the animals saw it, but they liked to rub 

 against it, and they rubbed through it, so I had to put a 

 stiand of barbed wire on top, on the inside. I think the 

 ribbon wire would be a perfectly safe fence to put around a 

 field where horses are to be turned out, if they were turned 

 out in daylight, when they could see it. I don't think any 

 horse would try it after he had seen it. 



Question. I would like to know what the gentleman 

 means by ribbon wire? 



Mr. BoAVDiTCH. Mr Smith can describe it better than I. 



Mr. S311TH. It is just about as wide as narrow ta})c. It 

 is half an inch wide. It is simply flattened wire. 



Mr. There is a very tine fence of that description 



in my neighborhood, that is very easily discernible by horses 

 or by cattle. I have some of that wire in my barn roady to 

 put up in the spring. It is nearly half an inch wide. It is 

 twisted when it is put up so that it shows very plainh'. 



Mr. Smith. I think the wire to which the gentleman re- 

 fers is called the Brinckerholf wire. It costs the same as 

 the other wire. 



Mr. BowDiTCH. I found that this wire without barbs of- 

 fered almost no resistance. My yearling calves would go 

 through it. It broke very easily. I recollect a friend of 



